Ankeny's Visual Adrenaline ends legacy on a high note

Choir's name will change next season

Apr. 27, 2013

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Written by

Sara Sleyster

Visual Adrenaline members perform in one of their last rehearsals. The Ankeny show choir's name will be retired this year. The district is adding a second high school in the fall, and new names will be chosen for the schools' varsity show choirs. / Mary Chind/The Register

See choir perform

Ankeny High School Visual Adrenaline performs at 4:30 p.m. today at the Arie Crown Theater, 2301 South Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. A live webcast is available of the competition at ShowChoirs.org. The cost is $20.

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Ankeny High School’s Visual Adrenaline will mark the end of an era with an encore.

Show choir students will compete today for the first time at the Show Choir National Championship in Chicago. Performing at finals had always been a goal, and this was the last year to make it happen, said senior Kelsey Arneson.

“(We thought) this is something that could be possible, and now to think that we accomplished something those before haven’t accomplished,” said Arneson, 17.

The Visual Adrenaline moniker will be retired after this year. New names will be chosen for the varsity show choirs at Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial high schools to use next season.

“It would be unfair to let one group continue with the name and compete with the legacy,” Arneson said.

The group performed what was expected to be its season-ending show in March at the FAME national qualifying competition in Orlando. The top three teams would be invited to the finals, but Visual Adrenaline Director Lester Miller III told students they would only go if they earned first place.

No Ankeny show choir had won a grand championship title, but seeing it happen was exciting for Miller.

“They have done themselves and their school proud,” he said. “Once they go, there isn’t anything stopping them.”

Miller will direct the Ankeny Centennial varsity show choir next year, and Lisa Kelsey will direct the one at Ankeny High School.

The show choir has 52 singers and dancers, 14 crew members and a 30-member band. This year’s routine was a compilation of six songs that depict the personal struggle of breaking through society’s molds and becoming who you are, Arneson said.

“We’ve come so far and been through so much,” she said. “The show kind of tells our own story.”

The group has received financial support from the district, parents, community members and alumni so that students could make the $20,000 trip to Chicago.

“It’s been overwhelming and humbling how many people in this town want us to do well,” Miller said.

Senior Brandon Boelts is excited that Visual Adrenaline’s last show will be in front of a national audience.

A number of videos of the show choir can be found online, but Boelts said none are as good as experiencing Visual Adrenaline in person.

“We’re making a statement to the country — ‘This is who we are, and this is who we’ve been,’ ” said Boelts, 18.